I’ve been a long-time fan of the notoriously-popular sitcom, “F.R.I.E.N.D.S”. In fact, so much that I have a re-mastered DVD set of all the 10 seasons of the TV show, and owing to that, I have watched it multiple times. I fondly recall that one episode where Joey, who was the least informed about everything amongst his friends, and consequently awkward in general discussions, spends his last $50 on an encyclopedia just so he can be a part of his group’s conversations. How that played our for him, I’ll leave it for you to see for yourself, but the fact remains that staying abreast with happenings around you, or in your field of interest, is pretty important not just for social reasons, but for one’s own mental well-being, too. To that purpose, RSS feeds are a great help, and I’m sure that you might be using at least some of them, or you won’t have been reading this article in the first place.
Mobile phones with great cameras have been around for a good many years now, and while the units mounted atop the likes of Apple’s iPhone 5 and 4S, Samsung Galaxy S III or Sony Xperia lineup have been nothing short of impressive, Nokia PureView 808’s 41-megapixel shooter had, indeed, taken smartphone photography to a whole new level. Add to the mix the powerful noise reduction algorithms that these cameras come with, the variety of photo applications they have their disposal, and the connectivity for wireless and cloud sharing that they offer, makes one absolutely believe that this is the future of general photography, no matter what point-and-shoot cameras might have you believe.
Microsoft has made no secret of the business acumen of Windows 8 and products such as the Surface. We've already seen this model marketed with Emirates Airlines, an upmarket company already seen to be embracing the Redmond company's technologies, and while Emirates could have gone all tablety long before now, it waited for the "security and robustness" provided by Microsoft. The idea of Windows 8 tablets and products being the, secure, go-to option for businesses has taken a bit of a hiding today, though, with the news that British bank Barclays has forked out at least £3.3 million to purchase 8,500 iPads, a move said to be a part of "improving the customer experience."
Prior to the release of the iPhone 5, Samsung promised the smartphone would be added to the ongoing patent dispute, and since that point, both companies have taken it in turns to name as many of the other's devices as possible. With this weekend being Thanksgiving and all, you might think both companies would take a break, have a little turkey, and enjoy watching the customers flock to stores to grab the limited deals. Apple is not known for taking anything lying down when it comes to intellectual property, though, and in viewing Friday as just another day, took the opportunity to add more of Samsung's devices to the ever-increasing list of claims.
The stock Weather app has been a staple part of iOS from the beginning, and since iOS 5, we have seen the company introduce a GPS based weather widget that lives within Notification Center and provides constantly updated weather information based on the location of the device at any given time. Of course, not everyone likes the stock implementation, and when looking for weather widgets that step away from the iOS norm then the MIUI Weather iWidgets could be the right place to go hunting.
With the likes of Apple and Samsung dominating the smartphone industry in the last few years, there has been a lot of attention lavished on Nokia over the last couple of weeks as we wait patiently to see if their flagship Lumia 920 device can make any kind of substantial impact in the mobile space. Early indications suggest that the Windows Phone 8 powered device has been received extremely well by consumers but could this be due to the physical design of the device or could the embedded software be a major part of the appeal? Nokia's lead designer Marko Ahtissari has taken a few minutes to share his thoughts on the product and what he calls a "really beautiful balance between the digital and the physical".
Cydia is definitely no stranger to tweaks and enhancements that are created with the intention of improving the rather lackluster multitasking experience which Apple has provided with iOS. Developers have gone about handling and displaying background apps in their own unique way, some of which were extremely good and some just downright terrible. The new jLauncher tweak is yet another personal implementation of multitasking, but one that makes use of the full-screen interface and is sure to delight many jailbroken iOS users.
Sometimes, even little things that we usually don’t pay much attention to, can have a significant impact over anything. Take the Android 4.2 update, for example. It was an incremental update – technically not much feature loaded – but it brought some things that captured the audience much more than many prior major updates combined. The feature that I am talking about in particular, however, is not a game-changer – it’s merely a convenience that has been added to the AOSP, making lives easier in the process for millions of Android users. I am talking about the ability to display widgets on lock screen and launching camera directly from the same.
Considering Apple is such a huge company and one of the largest players in the mobile and consumer technology industry, it shouldn't come as any huge surprise that there is always a lot of speculation flying around about the company and their potential product launches at any given time. Whenever a new iPhone or iPad is released, it is inevitable that the rumor mill will kick into gear for the next major announcement, but there are a few points of speculation coming from Apple analyst Gene Munster that could prove to have some merit and could potentially be worth paying attention to.
The dismissal of iOS SVP Scott Forstall at Apple, which has led to Jony Ive taking the helm in the future direction of the company's mobile software, has brought a whole new impetus on the prospect of iOS 7. With Ive said not to be a fan of the skeuomorphic designs throughout iOS, they'll likely go the way of the dodo, but it's not just the faux leather and paper expected to be updated when the next generation of iOS software eventually arrives next year.
